Blocked retreats

[Dark Omen]

This situation happened yesterday when I was playing a game vs dwarfs.

My cavalry were caught in a trap and were combo charged by two dwarvern units. After casualty removal the stands looked like this;

  D-D-D
D         D
D         D
D C      D
  D-D-D


D = Dwarf stand, C = Cav stand. Cavalry are facing towards left of diagram.

I was forced to retreat 1 cm from combat, as I had two dwarf Infantry stands to the front and to my left hand side, I chose to retreat from the left hand side.

So I ended up here

  D-D-D
D         D
D C      D
D         D
  D-D-D

I was 1 cm away from all units except for the unit in front. As I had sufficient room to retreat along the line of retreat, I thought I had escaped for another turn. However the rules seemed to indicate that you had to be 1 cm away from all enemy stands, not just the pursuers. Is this correct?

[Aquahog]

That is correct, the stand was lost in that retreat. If possible try to avoid leaving loosing stands in corners. On the other hand in this case you're pretty much fighting a lost battle anyway. I'd give it up unless I was close to killing a stand.

[Dave]

You affectively slid down a unit you were already engaged with? A retreating stand is only destroyed when its retreat is blocked. Your retreat wasn't blocked there. Had you contacted an unengaged enemy stand then it would be destroyed but I'd normally play that another round (see my next post).

Where are you getting the 1cm rule from? That usually has to do with evasion and falling back.

[cjbennett22]

I agree with Dave, I play as dwarves and see that stuff a lot.  The dwarves in the back of the cavalry couldn't be any closer than the 1mm per any and all rules so sliding to the right along the engaged unit is fine, they would be pursuing and not blocking and in this case, unless its rangers, the combat is ended and the dwarves would need to 3d6 out.

Actually what would then happen if the dwarves wanted to "stand their ground" (being victors) if they are touching in the previously described manner (if they are not rangers)?

[Dave]

Ahh, that's a good point. The last few times I played we allowed infantry one round of pursuit against cav when they hit it in the flank. Played that way the flanking dwarf unit would get to pursue and we would allow the dwarves to the cav's front to fight as well.

For those playing it by the book, the dwarves would only be able to stand or fall back. If they stand, they stay right where they are. There's no rule saying they have to be more than 1cm away from the enemy (that only applies when units evade or fall back). If they fall back they would  have to end 1cm from any enemy units.

[Aquahog]

After seeing the other comments and having gone through the rule book I take my statement back. Another house rule from the local tournaments it seems.

[Ole]

In Wahrsag 16 Q&A is the answer the following trail rule:

Losers that cannot be pursued by any enemy that round will retreat normally. Once the have done so they are considered to have ended combat and are no longer engaged. If contacted by enemy pursuing other units that round they count as a new contact and pursuit bonuses di not therefore apply against them.

Winners that are unable to pursue any of their opponents would normally have the option to stand or fall back at the end of the Combat round. If sending aloud leave unpursuabe enemy in touch then they must fall back. They are then considered to have ended combat and are no longer engaged.

[Dave]

OK, so there you go. The Dwarves the cav slid down would have to fall back.

[Dark Omen]

Cool, that was how we played it, I slid away from one unit of dwarfs along the other unit, then pushed my surviving stand 1 cm away from the unit it was touching.

It was the penultimate turn so could have made a difference, however with the cavalry effectively trapped all it did was prolong their death for another turn!

In the end the Empire won on points due to some lucky cannon shots routing the enemy!

[Dave]

Cool, that was how we played it, I slid away from one unit of dwarfs along the other unit, then pushed my surviving stand 1 cm away from the unit it was touching.

Your stand wouldn't be the one who moved back. Again, you only have to be outside of 1cm of the enemy when you evade or fall back, not retreat.

The Dwarf unit you were still touching would have had to fallback.

[cjbennett22]

where is that q&a located at?

[Aquahog]

Warmaster Magazine, an old printed publication. I wonder if someone ever collated an faq from them?

[Dave]

Ole said #16. That's one that I don't have.

[cjbennett22]

"In Wahrsag 16 Q&A" was typed so I just wanted to make sure that wasn't a publication I had never heard of or maybe a foreign language name for Warmaster 

I have a partial pdf of that magazine issue and it has no Q&A in it 
just checked scribd.com, not there either  ha

[Ole]

Sorry that was my spelling correction in german.

I thing we could collect all of the q&a. But some of them would be outdated since we had at least some kind of livingrulebook.

Ole